From Reds to Ruth to Rainiers: City's history has its hits, misses

Updated 1:09 pm, Monday, June 13, 2011

Pencil in a lineup card of professional baseball parks in Seattle and Safeco Field turns up the No. 9 hitter in the order.

Before there was all that glistening steel holding up a roof straight from "Star Wars," the game zigzagged across the city for 109 years, housed by hastily assembled wooden structures or the latest in concrete excess.

Madison Park, YMCA Park, Recreation Park, Yesler Way Field, Dugdale Park, Civic Field, Sick's Stadium and the Kingdome were first up as the area's pro ballparks, giving baseball local roots and providing a stage for the ultimate and unexpected.

Babe Ruth mesmerized the masses when he appeared for exhibition games at two of Seattle's stadiums, booming three long home runs on his first visit. Ted Williams, possibly the game's purest hitter, could barely hit .100 in town as a minor-leaguer.

Sick's set attendance records; Civic, a converted football field, scared off players with its rocky, grassless surface.

"Sick's was the epitome of a great minor league park in this country; Civic was pretty much a makeshift thing," said Vince O'Keefe, 84, retired Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Times sportswriter. "The old ballparks were just a good place to go."

A Fourth of July arson fire gutted Dugdale. The beloved Sick's was felled by a wrecking ball two decades ago, displaced by the Kingdome, which is soon headed for a similar fate. The other parks gradually faded away, some discarded on a mere whim.

Where players once reached for the short fences or navigated intrusive light poles to snare foul balls, where former major leaguers played out the string and prospective big-leaguers waited for the call, where schoolboys pleaded to get in free, there are no remnants of the early ballparks to be found. A busy hardware store, deserted bus barn, tree-lined park, high school football field, college gymnasium and Urban League of Seattle building have taken their place.

The only hint of baseball from another time is a tired, wooden sign posted on the corner of Rainier Avenue South and South McClellan Street, largely ignored by the bustle of a busy street. The faded lettering proclaims: "Historic Site of Sick's Stadium, 1938-1979, Home of the Seattle Rainiers Baseball Club."

From the shores of Lake Washington to Elliott Bay, a look at Seattle's ballpark past:

Madison Park (1890-92)

The best people in town were there, news accounts said. If this all sounds like a bit of snobbery, Seattle's pro baseball beginnings were just that.

On May 24, 1890, a crowd of 1,200 watched the Seattle Reds defeat Spokane 11-8. The mid-afternoon game was played on a field remodeled with grandstands to fit the pro needs, with work completed the day before the home opener. Players were brought in from Chicago and other distant cities. Fans arrived in horse-drawn carriages or boats to a ballpark located near Lake Washington.

"The crowd in attendance was noticeably a respectable one, the very best element in the stadium being present," a P-I story reported.

That's because most of them were transported in comfort to the then farflung ballpark.

The average fan was known to grumble about the hilly, 2-mile walk to and from the ballpark to the streetcar lines on East 23rd Avenue, according to local sports historian Russ Dille. This hardship no doubt was a contributing factor for the club and Northwestern Baseball League folding midway through the 1892 season.

Club owners didn't help themselves with the ballpark setup, either. People could stand on banks or climb outfield trees and watch free of charge.

Fans were treated to the play of outfielders Bill Lange, a future major-leaguer, and Matt Zimmer, who would become a prohibition-era cop in Chicago during gangster Al Capone's time.

Today, the site is a shady city park, replete with benches, rock animal sculptures, swingsets and two tennis courts. A half-dozen sycamores that look like they might have survived one turn of the century already line the park's south side.

YMCA Park (1896, '98, 1901-03)

Attempting to restart pro baseball and mollify the local fan, an open athletic field was remodeled into a ballpark with wooden grandstands on property now occupied by Seattle University's Connolly Center and other campus buildings.

Earlier failed attempts at Seattle baseball had determined this was not a rich man's game, hence the new park's centralized location. However, it also was enclosed and people had to pay in order to catch the action.

The first outing, on May 4, 1896, was hardly an overwhelming success. Just 495 fans showed up to watch Tacoma beat a gray-uniformed Seattle Nationals team, 11-9, under gray skies. Rain and a malfunctioning streetcar cable were reasons pinpointed for the small turnout.

In pregame festivities, Mayor W.D. Wood spoke to the ballplayers, centering his remarks around the wet conditions.

"We hope to show you that the people of Seattle appreciate your endeavors," he said. "We wish, however, that your manager could control the weather."

He could not. The league folded after 30 games when the summer rains would not stop.

Eighteen ninety-eight marked the arrival of Dan Dugdale, a portly man and former big-leaguer who would reorganize the league, become owner of the Seattle franchise and build two local ballparks.

Recreation Park (1903-06)

With pro baseball struggling to gain a foothold in Seattle for a dozen years, the city suddenly had two teams competing for fans and players, resulting in another new ballpark.

It was Pacific National League against the outlaw Pacific Coast League. Nationals against Indians. The teams often held games in town at the same time. Players jumped one club for the other. It was baseball war.

Dugdale's team remained tenants of YMCA Park, while the newcomers rushed to build Recreation Park at Fifth and Mercer, now the site of an abandoned bus barn and the Sonics training facility. In news accounts, this area was referred to as "North Seattle."

The first game at the new, wooden ballpark was played on April 29, 1903, with Seattle's PCL club beating San Francisco, 11-1, before a crowd of 3,000. A few miles away, Dugdale's PNL club edged Portland, 5-4. No attendance figure was reported at the latter.

Dugdale's team was more established with the locals, but the newcomers made things interesting, playing a 230-game schedule, from March to December. Stats were incredible. Outfielder George Van Haltren, a former big-leaguer, finished with 941 at-bats in one PCL season. The PCL team would win the battle, driving Dugdale into isolation for a few years.

However, Recreation Park was abandoned after the 1906 season when Dugdale regained total control of the Seattle baseball scene and announced plans to build his own stadium on Yesler Way.

The Recreation Park site near Seattle Center was nearly revived 60 years later, finishing as the alternate choice for the Kingdome.

Yesler Way Field (1907-13)

Four blocks from the former site of YMCA Park, Dugdale repositioned his troops in a cozy, new stadium. On April 20, 1907, 5,000 fans showed for the first game, won by the Butte Miners, 5-0.

This was the dead-ball era, but home runs came in bunches at wood-framed Yesler Field, balls frequently smashing windows in nearby apartment buildings.

Known as the Siwashes, or Indians, Seattle teams won pennants in 1909 and 1912, spurring widespread baseball interest across the city.

There were memorable characters as well. A Siwash first baseman was Fred McMullin, one of eight players later banned from baseball in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. A Seattle outfielder was named Ten Million. He had a mother who got a little carried away. He got off easy. His sister was named Decillion Million.

All along, developers were eager to obtain the centrally located property, which now houses the Urban League of Seattle building and other businesses, and pressured Dugdale to sell. Finally, he relented. Workers started tearing down the ballpark the same day the last game was played there.

Dugdale Park (1913-32)

Baseball on a real field. Finest ballpark in the West.

These were reactions to Seattle's fifth pro baseball facility when it opened for the final series of the 1913 season. The wooden park on Rainier Avenue was built in five weeks, replete with a double-deck grandstand, with workers hammering away until an hour before game time.

A crowd of 6,000 was on hand for the Sept. 9, 1913, opener, a 1-0 Seattle victory over Spokane. Tickets cost 50 cents or a quarter.

For trivia buffs, pitcher Walter Ruether played in both the first Dugdale game and, 19 years later, in the final one. He was with Spokane the first time and San Francisco the second.

In between Ruether visits, Babe Ruth showed his face at Dugdale.

Barnstorming, the Bambino traveled to Seattle for an exhibition game on Oct. 19, 1924, accompanied by New York Yankees teammate Bob Meusel. Each played with a local all-star team of semipro players in a contest sponsored by the P-I. Ruth batted fourth and ninth in the lineup to maximize his plate appearances.

With 9,000 people whipped in a frenzy, Ruth hit three homers over the rightfield fence. The first cleared a gas station, the third and longest landed in a carrot patch. In all, Ruth had four hits in nine trips, scoring three times and driving in six runs.

Ruth further endeared himself to the locals by visiting Children's Orthopedic Hospital; sending a congratulatory telegram to the Seattle Siwashes, who had clinched their league championship on the road; and tossing autographed baseballs into a crowd from the downtown roof of the P-I.

On Oct. 19, 1928, Ty Cobb showed up for his own Dugdale exhibition, going 4-for-6. He then caught a steamship to Japan the next day.

Dugdale Park, the house that Ruth and Cobb met, had a fiery end on July 4, 1932. After a holiday doubleheader during the day, the park went up in flames late that night and was gutted for a $75,000 loss.

"I came home on an old streetcar and noticed all these black pieces of paper wafting around in the air," said O'Keefe, the retired journalist. "It was the old ballpark burning down just over the hill."

Three years later, a Seattle man, Robert Driscoll, confessed to setting 115 fires throughout the city, including the one that destroyed Dugdale Park.

Civic Field (1932-38)

Pressed into emergency service, a 4-year-old stadium normally used for football and occasionally for boxing also would house baseball. On the future grounds of Memorial Stadium, box seats, additional fences and lighting were installed in a hurry.

A crowd of 6,000 attended the Civic baseball opener on July 19, 1932, an 11-10 Seattle Indians victory over the Mission Reds.

It wasn't a prefect fit, but there wasn't a suitable alternative. Covered wooden bleachers ran alongside first base and rightfield only, leaving those seated behind home exposed to the elements. Light poles were menacing obstacles in the middle of foul territory. The leftfield fence was just 265 feet away. Worse yet, the field had no grass.

"It was hard dirt and if it rained and the sun came out, it baked," said Bill Kinney, 87, and a former Civic Field groundskeeper. "It was like playing on Aurora Avenue."

Says Edo Vanni, former Seattle Rainiers player and manager and Seattle Pilots executive, "If a horse got stranded out there, he would have starved to death. It was nothing but rocks."

Kinney recalls a Sacramento third baseman stubbornly sitting out an entire seven-game series at Civic Field, refusing to play because of his dislike for the crude surface. But the harsh conditions did not keep the great ones away.

On their final ascent to the majors, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams both played at Civic Field. For them, it wasn't the same field: DiMaggio thrived at the plate, Williams slumped badly.

With the San Francisco Seals from 1933 to 1935, DiMaggio went 30-for-73 (.411) with 13 extra-base hits, including four homers, and 13 RBI. Before going on his seemingly untouchable 56-game hitting streak in the majors, he hit in 61 in a row in the minors in 1933, with games 2 through 9 of the latter played at Civic Field.

Williams toured Seattle in 1937, as a member of the PCL's San Diego Padres. He was a miserable 3-for-25 (.104) in two visits, all singles, with one RBI.

With far less fanfare, Ruth returned to Seattle a second time.

At the end of his career and on his way to Japan, the Yankees slugger played an exhibition game at Civic Field on Oct. 18, 1934. There were no home run jolts this time. Ruth, accompanied that day by fellow Yankees Lou Gehrig and Lefty Gomez, was limited to a run-scoring single in five at-bats. Gehrig went 1-for-4.

Civic Field served as a baseball park for six seasons, until Sick's Stadium opened on the old Dugdale site. Civic was torn down in 1945 and replaced two years later by Memorial Stadium.

Sick's Stadium (1938-76)

Backed by local beer baron Emil Sick, the stadium that carried his name opened on June 17, 1938, hailed as a model for minor-league ballparks. Built of concrete and steel, the stadium cost $500,000.

Thirteen thousand paying customers and a couple of hundred more seated on "Tightwad Hill" outside the leftfield fence saw the Rainiers lose the first game played there, 3-1, to Portland.

Fans raved about the closer seating. Players complimented the smooth infield and fancy bat racks, and noted that home runs were harder to come by than at Civic Field.

The place was a huge success, on many counts.

Sick's featured pitchers Fred Hutchinson and Dick Barnett, named minor league players of the year in 1939 and 1942, respectively.

Sick's led the Pacific Coast League in attendance for 15 of 31 seasons as a Class AAA site.

The ballpark failed when the major leagues took over in 1969. Outfield seats were installed at Sick's, jumping capacity from 15,000 to 25,000. But the Seattle Pilots were in and out of there after one season, declaring bankruptcy and complaining about being forced to play in "a minor league park."

There was surprise that attempts were made at all to turn Sick's into a big-league facility. Baltimore Orioles bullpen coach Elrod Hendricks, for instance, still can't figure it out.

"I thought they might have gone to Tacoma for awhile," said Hendricks, a former Seattle Angels catcher who played at Sick's.

Class A ball was the final Sick's tenant, from 1972 to 1976, with another version of Seattle Rainiers largely playing to an empty house.

"I remember you would hit a foul ball into the press box and 30 pigeons roosting in there would fly out," said Greg Riddoch, former Rainiers manager in 1974 and now Tampa Bay Devil Rays coach. "Nobody went up there when the big leagues were gone."

Attempts to preserve Sick's as a high school diamond or historical site were futile, and the ballpark, overgrown with weeds and paint peeling, was torn down in 1979.

Kingdome (1977-99)

To reclaim big-league baseball, Seattle taxpayers agreed to build a multi-purpose, domed stadium. This was supposedly a long-term solution to maintaining franchise stability and offsetting a rainy climate.

The Kingdome was completed in March 1976 at a cost of $67 million, and the Mariners played their first game 13 months later. A crowd of 57,762 saw them lose to the California Angels, 7-0.

Twenty-two years later, the facility has been deemed a baseball dinosaur. Falling ceiling tiles were a drawback. Lack of bathrooms was another. Team owners threatened to move the club if another ballpark wasn't built. The Kingdome is now scheduled for demolition early in 2000.

Vanni, 81, has been involved with the local baseball scene longer than most. He played and worked at Civic Field and Sick's Stadium. He says the Kingdome might have survived had it been built for baseball only, and wonders if Safeco Field will be the answer.

He's seen a lot of ballparks come and go. In his mind, comfort is one thing, but results are the bottom line.

"When you have a winning ballclub, people will go out to a cow pasture and watch you play," Vanni said.